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The Real Estate Council of Ontario is feeling the heat from Toronto

About the only thing Kevin Flynn enjoys more than drinking his home-brewed beer is sharing it with fellow beer club members at festivals and tasting competitions. So Flynn and his buddies were shocked to discover that Wisconsin law prohibits sharing homemade suds anywhere outside the brewer’s home.

The law could “pretty much be the end of competitions in Wisconsin,” he lamented. “At least legal ones.”

An explosion of interest in home brewing is forcing lawmakers across the country to review long-forgotten alcohol laws, some of which date back to Prohibition. Although the old rules have rarely been enforced, beer enthusiasts fear they could criminalize the rapidly growing hobby and kill scores of annual tasting events that bring tourists to small towns and cities.

In Wisconsin, Flynn and other home brewers may soon be off the hook. The state Legislature last week passed a bill to allow them to transport homemade beer and wine and to share it with other adults. Brewers will still not be permitted to sell anything they make, and they will remain exempt from permit requirements and taxes.

The proposal now heads to Gov. Scott Walker, who plans to sign it into law.

At least 17 states have ambiguous laws on whether home brewers can transport beer or wine outside the home, according to the American Homebrewers Association in Boulder, Colo.

The patchwork of rules can be frustrating for hobbyists who would prefer to spend their time exchanging recipes for pale ale or rhapsodizing about different varieties of hops, barley and yeast.

Some states _ including Georgia and South Carolina _ have restrictions similar to Wisconsin’s. In Kansas and Minnesota, home brewers can only make beverages for themselves or family members. Other states permit homemade beer and wine to be consumed by guests, too, as in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and Illinois.

A few states have been slow to accommodate the trend. Utah just legalized home brewing in 2009, and Oklahoma followed in 2010. Mississippi and Alabama are the only states that still forbid it.

Dan Grady of the Wisconsin Homebrewers Alliance, who led the legislative effort to revise Wisconsin’s law, said beer-makers need to be watchful in case states try to use the issue to generate money for their tight budgets.

“States are under enormous pressure. It’s a revenue issue,” he said. “Everything is on the table these days.”

Gary Glass, director of the home brewers association, said it’s a balancing act when considering whether to pursue a change in the law.

“The question becomes, at what point does a home brewing community want to take on having the law changed if it’s not really having an impact to what they’re doing?”

Glass, who organizes the group’s popular national conference, said he’s had trouble securing a venue in states with vague home brewing laws payday loans for self employed. The conference, which changes its location annually, brings in $500,000 to local economies.

A grassroots reform effort succeeded last year in Oregon, where the law had been similar to Wisconsin’s. Glass, who helped draft Wisconsin’s bill, said the legislation’s demise would have set a bad precedent for home brewing.

“In this economy, you’re stifling an industry that’s growing,” he said. “It sounds like a bad move.”

More than ever, people with little or no experience brewing beer or other fermented beverages are investing in kits and ingredients to make their own. The hobby has expanded into a vibrant beer culture, with brewers freely sharing their concoctions among neighbors and friends and in clubs and competitions.

Last year, there were 411 beer competitions sanctioned by the home brewers association and the Beer Judge Certification Program. That’s up from fewer than 100 in the early 1990s.

“Back in the day, everybody thought home brewing would just be what your grandfather would do,” said Jason Heindel, president of the Beer Barons of Milwaukee Cooperative.

Home brewing has also helped invigorate the booming craft brewing industry. And it’s generated a cottage industry of its own. An annual survey of brewing supply shops around the country showed an increase in sales for beginner brewing kits, according to the home brewing association.

Home brewing was illegal in the United States until 1978, when the federal government lifted Prohibition-era restrictions on making alcohol in the home. The revised law allowed homemade beer and wine to be offered at tasting competitions but also left most alcohol regulations up to individual states. So many states have their own home-brewing rules that supersede federal policies.

In Wisconsin last year, brewers were caught off guard when the state Department of Revenue ruled that it was illegal for home brewers to share beer outside the home. The decision came after Racine officials inquired about a contest known as the Schooner Home Brew Competition.

After the department’s announcement, organizers quietly moved the contest, one of the state’s largest, from Racine to nearby Union Grove. But they didn’t advertise it because they feared possible fines.

Grady said home brewers in other states can learn from Wisconsin.

“Home brewers need to look at their state law, because they might be just as ambiguous as Wisconsin,” he said. “And if there’s ambiguity, they need to contact their lawmakers to get them clarified, much like we’re doing here.”

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Shares of Apple reached $600 for the first time on Thursday, setting yet another milestone for the stock market’s most valuable company.

The stock hit $600.01 moments after the market’s open before quickly falling back below that level. Shares closed down 1% at $585.56.

Apple’s (, Fortune 500) stock price growth has risen for the past three years, boosted in particular by record sales of the iPhone and iPad. The much-hyped third-generation iPad is set to go on sale Friday.

It was almost exactly one month ago that Apple cracked the $500 level for the first time. Apple passed the $400 level for the first time seven months earlier, and it’s been just 17 months since it passed $300. Shares traded above $200 for the first time in October 2009.

At $600, the combined value of Apple’s outstanding shares is more than $559 billion, the third-highest valuation ever for a public company. It now only trails General Electric (, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (, Fortune 500), which both soared to around $600 billion during the dot-com bubble at the turn of the century.

Apple’s valuation is huge, but analysts say that the fundamentals back it up.

Despite its monumental rise, Apple’s stock is still trading at just 14 times its expected earnings per share for 2012. That’s relatively cheap, considering that the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 trades at about 18 times future earnings.

Apple had $127.8 billion in sales during the 2011 calendar year, putting it neck-and-neck with Hewlett-Packard (, Fortune 500), the nation’s largest tech company by revenue. This year, Apple is on pace to become the biggest technology company in the world, measured by revenue, outpacing current global No. 1 Samsung.

Last quarter, Apple posted $13 billion in profit. It was one of the most profitable quarters ever for any U.S. company, trailing only ExxonMobil’s (, Fortune 500) record-setting $14.8 billion quarter from the fall of 2008, when oil prices were at an all-time high.

Analysts attribute the stock’s recent rise primarily to Apple’s outstanding iPhone sales. Apple sold 37 million of the devices last quarter, and early indications are that the phones are continuing to sell well this quarter across the globe.

Investors are also investors buying into the belief that Apple will soon have a dividend. The company has nearly $100 billion in cash sitting around, and CEO Tim Cook has hinted that he’s willing to part with some of it.

"Some of money that got put to work starting late last year was from investors that want dividend," said Alex Gauna, tech analyst at JMP Securities. "That’s how this whole thing got started. But lately it’s been all about the iPhone." 

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China’s premier suggested Wednesday the rise of the yuan against the dollar has ended, possibly fueling tensions with the U.S. amid complaints the tightly controlled currency is undervalued and distorts trade.

Frictions over China’s currency are acute at a time when governments are trying to boost exports and avert a new global slowdown. Washington and other nations complain an undervalued yuan gives China’s exporters an unfair price advantage and wipes out jobs abroad.

Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking at a wide-ranging, three-hour news conference at the end of China’s legislative session, said the yuan has gained 30 percent in real terms since 2005 and has moved up and down since September in Hong Kong trading of nondeliverable forward contracts. Such contracts track the movement of currencies that are not freely traded, and are settled in dollars or other hard currencies.

“That shows that the renminbi exchange rate may possibly have reached an equilibrium exchange rate,” said Wen, the country’s top economic official.

Wen pledged to create a more flexible, market-based exchange rate system.

“We welcome greater elasticity of the renminbi exchange rate,” he said.

Wen’s comments are likely to frustrate critics including American lawmakers who are pressing for higher tariffs on Chinese goods.

China’s normally huge trade surplus plunged to a rare $31.5 billion deficit in February. Some commentators took it as a sign the yuan has reached a fair exchange rate. But others said it was a one-time event, noting China often has a trade deficit early each year as factories restock after the Lunar New Year holiday.

On Tuesday, the United States, the European Union and Japan opened a new front in trade disputes with Beijing when they filed complaints with the World Trade Organization challenging its controls on rare earths mining and exports. U.S. President Barack Obama accused Beijing, a WTO member, of going against free-trade rules it promised to follow.

Wen did not mention that case at Wednesday’s news conference but appealed for closer cooperation with Washington to resolve “difficulties and frictions.” He gave no indication of possible concessions on complaints about market barriers and other disputes.

Wen called for U.S.-Chinese collaboration in clean energy, environmental protection, aviation and other technology fields.

The premier also said China plans to invest in U.S. infrastructure _ a possibility first raised in November by the chairman of Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund cash advance today. Wen gave no timetable or possible targets for investment.

“China will make investment in infrastructure construction in the United States, and that will help contribute to the generation of local jobs,” Wen said.

Turning to the domestic economy, Wen announced no new reforms but promised more steps to achieve previously announced goals of making China’s economy cleaner and more efficient after three decades of rapid growth driven by low-cost labor.

Growth slowed to a still-robust 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2011 after Beijing clamped down on credit and investment to steer the expansion to a more sustainable level from 2010’s double-digit rate. The government lowered its growth target this year to 7.5 percent from the 8 percent level in place since 2005.

“We hope China’s growth will no longer come at the cost of resource consumption and environmental pollution,” the premier said in nationally televised comments.

The World Bank and Beijing’s own researchers say the economy requires sweeping change to curtail the dominance of state companies and promote consumer spending to reduce reliance on exports. They say that if leaders fail to act, they might see growth stall, trapping China’s people at middle income levels.

Leaders appear to be postponing basic changes until a once-a-decade leadership succession is completed this year _ a delay some analysts say might increase the cost and difficulty of rebalancing the economy.

Wen said lending and construction curbs that have started to cool surging housing prices will remain in place despite complaints they might worsen an economic slowdown. Construction and real estate sales are key drivers of China’s growth.

The housing price surge was driven in part by the flood of stimulus spending and bank lending after the 2008 global crisis. Prices eased slightly in the second half of 2011 but are well above levels of recent years.

“Home prices in China are far from coming back to a reasonable level, so we must not slacken our efforts in regulation of the housing sector,” Wen said. “Otherwise, past gains will be lost and there will be chaos in the housing sector.”

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Greece edged closer to fending off bankruptcy Monday, but U.S. markets were mostly underwhelmed.

Stocks struggled for direction after Greece announced it had persuaded its private investors to take deep losses on their bond holdings, which should help Greece avoid default in the short term but could also crimp the country’s ability to borrow money in the future.

The Dow Jones industrial average stayed above its previous close for most of the day, and was up 45 points to 12,967 in the early afternoon. The Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq composite index, on the other hand, spent most of the day lower. Trading was even choppier in the early afternoon, with the S&P virtually unchanged at 1,371 and the Nasdaq down 4 points to 2,984.

“The market is going to continue to feel very schizophrenic,” said Carol Pepper, CEO of founder of Pepper International, a money management firm in New York. “Some days it’s depressed, some days it’s excited, some days it’s terrified.”

Monday’s news out of Europe appeared to only add to the fogginess of predictions on where the market is heading. Greece’s new deal with its investors should help the country avoid bankruptcy later this month by lightening its crushing debt load. But the country remains in a serious recession even as the country moves toward making spending cuts being demanded by its lenders.

Jeff Sica, president and chief investment officer of SICA Wealth Management in Morristown, N.J., said Greece is only a distraction from other deep-rooted problems throughout Europe, including brewing debt burdens in Portugal and Italy. Presidential elections in France add another layer of uncertainty because a new leader could backpedal on fiscal commitments made by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The struggling European countries also can’t cut spending, which they’ll likely need to do to avoid bankruptcy, without angering their citizens. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people in Spain took to the streets in dozens of cities to protest cuts in government spending.

Greece has “become a touchstone for people to say, `Okay, things are getting better,’” Sica said. “But they had to force private investors to take losses, the European Central Bank has swelled their balance sheet, it’s going to be impossible to impose austerity on these countries. They haven’t really accomplished a single thing except buying time.”

News about the U.S. economy has also been opaque, with every sign of economic recovery met with another sign of economic slowdown. While the unemployment rate falls, some analysts raise questions about the quality of the new jobs being created, and others worry that the high price of gas will prevent people from the spending needed to fuel the economy. The average price for a gallon of gasoline jumped nearly a nickel over the weekend, to $3.80. China, the superpower that has pushed the world economy forward even as other countries flagged since 2008, announced that its growth slowed at the end of last year.

The knee-jerk nature of the market has been on display in the past two weeks. The Dow powered higher on positive news headlines when it closed over 13,000 on Feb. 28, a milestone it hadn’t reached since May 2008. But it’s failed to close above that line again. On one day last week, it plummeted more than 200 points over concerns about Greece, more than double its second-biggest loss so far this year.

“Everybody is stepping back and assessing whether the ride is over,” Sica said. “It’s almost as if investors get to a point where they scratch their head and say, `Does the market deserve to be here?’”

The 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 also failed to provide a clear direction, evenly split between gainers and losers in the afternoon. Utilities, which tend to attract nervous investors because of their relatively stability and generous dividends, rose the most. Markets in Europe were also divided. Germany did better than others, rising 0.3 percent. Greece fell 2.5 percent.

Companies making big moves included:

_ Defibrillator maker Zoll Medical Corp. jumped 24 percent to $92.76 after its board agreed to a buyout offer of $93 per share from Japan’s Asahi Kasei Corp.

_ Mattress maker Sealy Corp. climbed 6 percent after its second-largest shareholder, an investment firm called H Partners Management, asked the company to shuffle its board and blamed the company’s problems on the largest shareholder, private equity firm KKR & Co.

_Harley-Davidson Inc. climbed 2.5 percent after Citigroup analyst Greg Badishkanian raised his price target on the stock $4 to $50, saying he expects higher sales in the first quarter.

_Luxury retailer Michael Kors fell 4 percent to $47.75. The company, purveyor of $950 high heels, announced late Friday that some of its major shareholders would be selling their shares earlier than expected.

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Victoria’s Secret parent Limited Brands Inc (LTD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a large sales gain for February, leading a charge of retailers that benefited from rising consumer confidence to beat Wall Street forecasts.

Limited, which also owns Bath & Body Works, said on Thursday that sales at stores open at least a year rose 8 percent last month, above the analysts’ average forecast of 6.2 percent compiled by Thomson Reuters.

So far six retailers, including Stage Stores (SSI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and teen-oriented The Buckle Inc (BKE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Zumiez Inc (ZUMZ.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have reported February sales that have come in above Wall Street forecasts.

Improving consumer confidence is one reason analysts expect February same-store sales to be up 3.4 percent for the 21 companies tracked in Thomson Reuters’ same-store sales index.

Other chains, including Macy’s Inc (M.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Kohl’s Corp (KSS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Target Corp (TGT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), will report later on Thursday morning.

The housing market appears to be stabilizing, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January from 9.1 percent in August. The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey rose for the sixth straight month in February payday lenders.

And the surging stock market, which this week hit its highest levels since May 2008 financial meltdown, has been a boon for upscale chains like Saks Inc (SKS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in recent months.

But the rising price of gasoline is casting a pall on consumer spending. As of Thursday, a gallon of gas in the United States cost $3.74, up 35 cents from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.

On Wednesday, Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its same-store sales had risen 8 percent in February, outpacing the 7.6 percent rise that analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters data. Much of the warehouse club chain’s gains in the past year have come from shoppers seeking cheaper gasoline.

Wet Seal (WTSLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was one of the few chains to report a decline in sales, but the fall of 5.8 percent was less steep than expected.

Home decoration and furniture chain Pier 1 Imports Inc (PIR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its same-store sales for the full holiday quarter rose 10.3 percent.

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Two months after filing for personal bankruptcy, former SynCare LLC chief Stephanie DeKemper on Tuesday asked that the corporation itself be granted Chapter 7 protection.

SynCare listed assets of $125,854 and debts over $5.6 million in papers filed with the Indianapolis federal bankruptcy court.

Nearly $2 million of that debt is owed to Clayton-based Centene, the corporation that provided seed money DeKemper used to purchase SynCare in early 2010.

SynCare proceeded to secure a Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services contract to oversee services for the state’s 50,000 homebound Medicaid patients.

The state terminated the pact last September, barely four months after it went into effect, following a public outcry over SynCare’s failure to deliver the services outlined in the agreement.

With one exception, this week’s corporate petition mirrors the personal bankruptcy papers filed on behalf of DeKemper the last week of December.

The personal bankruptcy names nearly 150 SynCare employees from Missouri seeking back wages and and reimbursement for business-related expenses.

The corporate Chapter 7, conversely, lists compensation owed to 13 people once employed at SynCare’s Indianapolis headquarters.

Fifth Third Bank, holding outstanding loans totaling $850,000 joins Centene as the corporation’s largest creditor.

The papers show Bank of America being owed $676,964 for a letter of credit secured by Centene.

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A second, euro130 billion ($172 billion) bailout and a deep debt write-off for financially stricken Greece will ward off a financial disaster in Europe.

Economists, however, only give the deal a slim chance of putting the country on the path to economic recovery _ and steadying its place in Europe’s currency union.

Agreement on the bailout, reached early Tuesday after an all-night summit of finance ministers seven months after it was first proposed, will give Greece euro130 billion in loans through 2014 from other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund. It’s the country’s second bailout, following a euro110 billion rescue secured in 2010 that didn’t return the country to solvency.

The agreement also assumes that banks and investors owed money by Greece will take new bonds that reduce their holdings by more than half.

In return for the second bailout, Greece has agreed to painful and humiliating measures imposed by its mistrustful partners which also use the euro, annoyed after two years of what they say are broken promises to reform. Athens agreed to cut spending and wages, and to permit outsiders to supervise its finances through the presence of European Union and International Monetary Fund officials permanently stationed in Greece. The rescuers also demanded a separate account for the aid money and legal guarantees that creditors get paid before teachers, doctors and police do.

The finance ministers from Greece and the other 16 countries that use the euro wrangled until the early morning over the details of the rescue, squeezing last-minute concessions out of private holders of Greek debt who agreed to lose 53.5 percent of the face value of their investment to avoid even more severe losses expected if Greece fails to pay euro14.5 billion in debt coming due March 20.

The fear is that an uncontrolled bankruptcy could unleash market panic across the rest of the continent, further unsettling other struggling other debt-stricken countries such as Ireland, Portugal or the much bigger Italy or Spain.

Serious risks of failure include the chance that Greece’s economy remains in a deep recession _ where it’s been for four straight years _ instead of returning to growth in 2013 as the deal assumes. That would undermine chances of paying even the reduced debt load, estimated at a still-high 120 percent of annual economic output in 2020, down from 160 percent now.

Additionally, political outrage over the cutbacks could lead Greece politicians to balk at the tough conditions. That could push rescuer countries _ led by Germany _ to cut off further funding.

Elections in Greece are expected in April. The leaders of the two main parties have committed to the cuts and reform program, but anti-bailout parties have been gaining in the polls.

Growth is the key. But Greece’s economy shrank 7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and unemployment is 19 percent, a consequence of cuts in public wages and increased taxes inflicted during a downturn.

If that keeps up, even the rescuers acknowledge the reduction goal of 120 percent of GDP is long gone.

Success “really depends on the assumptions you make in terms of growth and interest rates,” said Diego Iscaro, an economist at IHS Global Insight. “The risks are clearly on the downside. The main risk comes from the economic situation, the economic dire straits.”

“By austerity alone, Greece will not solve the problems it has at the moment. We don’t know when the economy will return to growth and how it will grow.”

Unless something breaks the cycle of austerity and contraction “something will have to give.”

Even if it later balks at the conditions for the bailout, Greece would have difficulty writing down the new debt it issued to private bondholders, who demanded stronger legal protections. Official creditors _ the IMF, the eurozone countries and the European Central Bank _ would also have difficulty accepting more writedowns. Inability to pay _ or unwillingness to accept the harsh conditions _ could lead to a non-negotiated “hard” default that could end in Greece leaving the euro.

The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund hope the new program will eventually put Greece back into a position where it can survive without external support. Both private and official creditors went beyond what they had said was possible in the past. On top of the new rescue loans, Athens will also ask banks and other investment funds to forgive it some euro107 billion ($142 billion) in debt, while the European Central Bank and national central banks in the eurozone will forgo profits on their holdings.

The deal “closes the door to an uncontrolled default that would be chaos for Greece and Greek people,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

But despite those unprecedented efforts, it was clear that Greece was at the very best starting on a long and painful road to recovery. It is being pushed to make its economy more business-friendly and productive by opening access to closed trades and professions; halting rampant tax evasion; allowing more flexibility in wage bargaining between companies and unions; simplifying starting a business; and cutting its bureaucracy.

But those measures will take years to work _ if Greece’s politicians are willing or able to push them through.

“It’s not an easy (program), it’s an ambitious one,” said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, adding that there were significant risks that Greece’s economy could not grow as much as hoped.

Including Greece’s first bailout worth euro110 billion ($146 billion), the new deal means every Greek man, woman and child will owe the eurozone and the IMF about euro22,000 ($29,000).

In Athens, the reaction to the news was a mixture of relief the country has avoided financial catastrophe and fear of a dark future.

“I don’t see it with any joy because again we’re being burdened with loans, loans, loans, with no end in sight,” architect Valia Rokou said in the Greek capital.

Greek politicians nevertheless greeted the package as a turning point for their battered country.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that today is a historic day for the Greek economy,” said Greek Premier Lucas Papademos, who had rushed to the finance ministers’ meeting to lend weight to his country’s pleas for help.

For those who Greece owes money, the bond swap will lop euro107 billion off Greece’s euro352 billion load. On top of that, investors will be asked to give Athens 30 years to repay them, compared with just under 7 years.

Average interest rates would fall to 3.65 percent from around 4.8 percent.

Overall losses for private bondholders would be above 70 percent when accounting for the new bonds’ longer repayment period and lower interest rate.

Private investors weren’t the only ones having to give ground. The eurozone countries will reduce the interest that Greece has to pay for its first package of bailout loans to 1.5 percentage points over market rates from between 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points currently.

At the same time, the European Central Bank and the national central banks in the countries that use the euro will forgo profits on their Greek debt holdings, again reducing the costs for Greece.

But several hurdles remain before Greece will see any of the money or other benefits of the new program.

Apart from the implementation of more than 30 different savings and reform measures by Greece, the new bailout has to be debated by parliaments in several member states, including Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.

The IMF also still has to decide how much of the euro130 billion bill it is willing to stump up. Going into the meeting, the Washington-based fund had indicated its contribution will be lower than the one-third of the total it has provided in previous bailouts.

IMF chief Lagarde said the fund’s board would decide on its contribution in the second week of March.

“In doing so it will have in mind the overall program, but also additional matters such as the proper setting up of a decent firewall,” Lagarde said with reference to Europe’s current and future bailout funds.

At the moment, the overall ceiling for eurozone rescue loans has been set at euro500 billion ($663 billion), much of which has already been committed to Ireland, Portugal and now Greece. Euro leaders will decide at their summit in early March whether that ceiling should be increased.

On top of that, it will also take some time to see how many private creditors will participate in the debt relief and how many will have to be forced to sign up through new legal clauses. The representatives of the private bondholders said they were confident that investors would find the deal attractive, but some analysts fear that imposing losses on even some bondholders may destabilize markets.

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A Johnson & Johnson consumer health unit plagued by product recalls says it is pulling some versions of infant Tylenol off store shelves due to problems with a device that helps measure doses.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare says it is recalling about 574,000 bottles of a grape-flavored version of the liquid medicine, which was distributed nationally.

The medicine bottle comes with a syringe and has a protective cover, or flow restrictor, at the top to help measure the right dose pay day loan lenders. McNeil says that restrictor has been pushed into the bottle in some cases when the syringe is inserted.

McNeil is one of three business segments for J&J, which is based in New Brunswick, N.J. The consumer division has issued about two dozen recalls in more than two years.

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The Bank of Japan added to monetary easing after exports tumbled and the economy contracted by more than forecast in the fourth quarter.

Governor Masaaki Shirakawa